The VH Trade Site Forums Archives

[Scott Roberts]

Date: June 11, 2004
City: Greensboro, NC
Venue: Greensboro Coliseum
Setlist:

1. Jump
2. Runaround
3. "My Generation" riff (The Who)
4. Humans Being
5. Up For Breakfast (with the 5150 Kramer)
6. Mikey's Solo (with the JD bass)
7. Somebody Get Me A Doctor (with Mike on lead vocals)
8. Poundcake
9. It's About Time
10. Al's Solo
11. Top Of The World
12. Unchained
13. Why Can't This Be Love? (all singing)
14. Eagles Fly
15. Deeper Kind Of Love (I would assume Sam solo)
16. Learning To See
17. Best Of Both Worlds
18. Eddie's Solo (no Wolfie)
19. Dreams
20. Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love
21. Right Now

Encore:
22. You Really Got Me
23. Panama
24. When It's Love

Length: N/A
Format: Video and Audio Pending...
Audio Avilable Here:
http://www.vhlinks.com/forums/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=Downloads&Number=563007
(must be logged in as a vhforums.com member to access)
Menu's (Authored): N/A
VIDEO Quality/Generation: N/A
For multiple angle shows, shot where?: N/A
Audio Quality/Generation: N/A
Comments: N/A

Sorry, guys for deletion of posts, just trying to keep these clean...

[Scott Roberts]

Review:

Snagged from the forums:

Well our friend Fan Halen is at the show tonight and he has been kind
enough to talk with me via instant messenger tonight about what's been
going on.

So here's what I can tell you so far.

He says the band sounds great, all of them sound like they haven't
missed a beat. The band has been very animated and tons of interaction
with the crowd. Ed has even been slapping some of the fans' hands.

Sammy has been signing autographs as he's singing. He's also been
filling up cups of beer and giving it to the audience.

Ed's got the same samurai hair going, shirtless with cargo pants. Mike's
in a vintage VH t-shirt and jeans. FH says Sammy "should be in Cabo," so
I guess we know what he's wearing. Al is wearing a white headband and
is shirtless as well.

Tons of banners being thrown up on stage, reminds him of the LWAN video,
for a good analogy.

That's where he is so far, I'll update the set list in this post as the
night goes on.

Ed was very moved by reaction to his solo, really thanked the crowd.

There's about 75 or so people in the ring, and about 10,000 in the
audience. It's very packed FH said, especially for Greensboro, the way
upper levels are covered with black tarp.

A great light show during "Right Now." Also during that song, updated
the video for it with stuff about Bush and the Iraqi War, combined with
the old footage.

There's one main middle screen that FH says looks like a planet, then
two smaller side screens.

Ed is moving around well, he's not running around. But he's jumping here
and there.

FH says Sam is very energized and animated. His voice sounds great.

Sam has been running around on the ring all night, Mike has been up
there from time to time. Eddie not very much at all.

Sam thanked the fans before they started the encore, really appreciated
everyone sticking around all these years. Has kept his sunglasses on
most of the show.

Ed has played that orange sunburst Wolfie the entire show except for the
5150 Kramer on "Breakfast."

Eddie just said it's the "best day of his life."

That's the basics so far.

[Scott Roberts]

Another good review (and info about the 5-Star Tickets):

George M. at VHLinks Forums writes:

Ok, I understand some people on here are very interested about the
5-star stuff, so I'll put the 5-star program in this message so it gets
up quickly and then talk about the main show later.

Today we had some trouble getting everyone to the will-call window, and
several of us ended up at the advance ticket office, before roaming
around the Coliseum complex until someone directed us to the correct
location. A fairly humorous beginning, but that was about the only thing
about the day that went wrong.

At 4, our guide, Kim, came out and said "Sorry to keep you waiting, but
we are going to give you your 5-star laminates DESIGNED PERSONALLY BY
ALEX VAN HALEN!". The design isn't incredible, but its cool to get a
souvenir designed by Alex.

However...the laminate was very functional, the 5-star package is not
bunk at all (I expected it to be over-hyped and a excuse to pay $400 for
a good seat).

When we were finally brought in, they brought us directly to sound
check. Eddie came out first and said hi (his hair still down), and then
realized that we were actually seated in the stands a good distance from
a band. A stunned Irving Azoff (who looked about to have a heart attack
about it) was aghast when Eddie motioned for us to come up to the first
few rows for the sound check!! We ended up actually seeing sound check
in our real rows. They all came out, including Sammy, and played Jump,
followed by Learning to See and Its About Time without Sammy (to save
his voice).

But the sound check component is awesome! The party was actually pretty
fun, there was pretty decent snack food (chips and party salsa mix which
was really good), vegetables with ranch dip, chicken strips (this may
vary by venue anyway.

Here's part 1....back with more in a minute

--------------------

5-star activities, part 2

The backstage tour wasn't that cool, but it was pretty interesting. The
highlight ended up being having the lead singer of Silvertide personally
ask myself and my friend if we had a light as we walked past their
dressing room. By the time we made it around the tour back into the
arena they were onstage! It was pretty funny.

After the tour we went back to the room with the party (by which time
most of the 5-star fans got pretty much trashed). However, it turned
into a real party once they had a raffle and gave away a ton of free
merch (the tour shirts are really cool btw. There is the "sun" logo one
like on the website, there is one with Frankenstein-logo Eddie shoes on
the front, there is one with Alex's new eagle logo design, and there is
one with the band on the front). Anyway, one of the prizes in the raffle
was golden rings tickets! I thought this was pretty cool, even though I
actually bought some myself a few days ago on the auction (more on that
in a minute).

Verdict: Five star highly worth it. The seats were all in the first FIVE
rows, not 10, and the package was not bunk at all. The food we got was
good, and they had PLENTY of beverages for us at the party, plus the
raffle for free stuff and the cool laminate and backstage tour. The
SOUNDCHECK IS INCREDIBLE. If you have the 5-star, you are in for a
treat, as you pretty much get a private mini-set with 100 other people
(we were counting and noticed there appeared WELL over 75 people with
us). Totally worth the money as a big fan. The staff was also very nice
and helpful.

More on the actual show in my next post, as I on dialup in my hotel and
it takes forever to post on this. I am going to comment on the actual
show also because I was in the golden rings, and nobody seems to have
posted about that yet.

Give me another minute...

--------------------------

The actual show from the rings....

Alright, as I said, my friend and I had the problem (if you can call it
that) of having to decide between sitting in the rings or our five-star
seats (which ended up being on the first row).

I convinced my friend to go in the rings with me, and we did, BUT, and
this is very important...The first 5 rows are FREAKING close, and as I
said earlier....we stood there during sound check and it was nuts. As
Brett cautioned before, the 5-star seats were really good and I had to
actually think before I decided to even go and pick up the golden ring
tickets I had spent several hundred dollars on separately.

Once we decided to go in the rings, I had to actually leave the venue to
go get the ring tix. Of course, for those who somehow don't know, the
ILAA stuff does not include any rings tickets, and the rings tickets
don't get you any of the ILAA perks. Having both, we decided to go on
the tour and all the ILAA stuff and then go back out and come back to
sit in the rings instead of our package seats.

It ended up being a good decision, since my friend and I were right up
to the wall on Mikey's side. We were literally right next to Mike the
whole show, and he even winked at my friend one time. He talked to us in
the ring the whole show, allowing people to even tap his bass at one
point. In the ring, we also got to shake hands with both Mike and even
Eddie (who came over a couple times), in addition to catching no less
than 3 picks from Mike.

Oh, and let's not forget, there is a small barrier in the front of the
stage (although there is no "50 feet gap" as rumored or anything), so if
you want to be close to the band, go bid on rings tix. My friend and I
got allot out of getting in the ring early and being up front (there
were only the approx. 12 people as claimed in the ring though).

The sound in there was good, although it was probably a bit better in
the first few rows ONLY because you get the better mix of sound between
Eddie and Mike (they both have stacks of their own amps on their
respective side of the stage). We got to be right up by Mikey, but
naturally our side was very bass heavy (although we could hear everyone
else just fine and it sounded great).

On to a couple observations on the actual show (finally) in my next
post...

--------------------------

Ok, on to a couple observations about the show, though the set list and
basic stuff will be well covered by others if not already.

On the camera thing.... I had to actually leave the arena, get in the
"Band will call" line to get my ring tickets, and then go all the way
back in. The search I got was very light, but this was at about 7:00
after the five-star party ended.

>From then on, I was in the ring, right at the front corner of the "left
ring", for the whole show (after a brief merchandise stop on the way
in).

The lighting was nuts, even for an arena show. The stage setup has
otherwise been sufficiently covered.

Eddie had his hair less in a "bun" and a little looser, even though it
was up. Mike looked in great shape, and Al was Mr. automatic as usual.

As for the set, it was no longer than the rehearsal, almost exactly 2
hours. The set for this show started at 8:30 and ended at almost exactly
10:30.

All of it sounded great, and I am getting tired of typing lol.

There was no Wolfie, but we got THE DRILL on Poundcake and a couple
other cool things I will try to remember for tomorrow.

If anyone has any questions about the rings or the 5-star stuff in
particular, I will be more than happy to answer.

[Scott Roberts]

Got some Greensboro pics from VHForums.com posted up here:

http://www.vhtrading.com/cgi-bin/album.pl?album=2004_Tour

[Vince G.]

Quote: Originally posted by ScottRoberts:
Got some Greensboro pics from VHForums.com posted up here:

http://www.vhtrading.com/cgi-bin/album.pl?album=2004_Tour Kudos to whomever snapped those pics. I read security was all over anyone with anything even resembling a camera.

[steecoe]

Quote: Originally posted by Vince G.:
Quote: Originally posted by ScottRoberts:
[b]Got some Greensboro pics from VHForums.com posted up here:

http://www.vhtrading.com/cgi-bin/album.pl?album=2004_Tour Kudos to whomever snapped those pics. I read security was all over anyone with anything even resembling a camera.[/b] I don't know if they were allowing purchases or not but I saw disposable camera vending machines in the hallway!!

[guitard]

In one of the pics, a guy is holding up a license plate. I would think that would be considered potentially dangerous if thrown frisbee-style, so security would make you get rid of it.

Hell... if you can get a license plate it, I'd imagine you could sneak just about anything in.

Randy

[Scott Roberts]

Another lengthy review, courtesy of JimmyW of the VHML:

Here's how it panned out. I was a little tipsy and I
don't recall a lot of details, but here goes:

I'm sitting in Section C, Right hand side of the Floor
section, Row 30, about 50 feet from the stage. The
Stage *is* as cool as it looks in the pictures. The
big testicle monitor doesn't really look like a big
testicle in the arena, it looks kinda like a giant sea
cucumber. But maybe that's just me. Ok...cut to
chase...Looked like around 10-12,000 people there, you
could really feel the excitement...Lights go down, the
guitar and drum fanfare and lights going crazy, crowd
going crazy Stage lights flare on and they open up
with:

1. Jump

Gahhhhh...Ok..."Jump" ain't my choice, but whatever...
Get it the fuck out of the way, I can deal. Band looks
good, Eddie looks like someone has cloned his body
circa 1979 and sewed his 70-year-old Pebbles
Flintstone head on it. Crowd is going fucking nuts
like I haven't seen since '84. Sam looks chunky, Mike
chunkier, Al looks lean and mean. THe first thing I
notice is that the sound where I am is *really* muddy.
Unfortunately, this doesn't improve. Somone needs to
fix that. It sucked. Anyway, Song was ok, Ed broke
into his Jump solo, Crowd went totally berserk, Ed
acknowledged, all is good.

> 2. Runaround

It went over great. They're a little stiff here, but
they're still tight as a band and it works out well.
I'm yelling, everyone else is yelling.

> 3. "My Generation" riff (The Who)

A cool surprise, but they should have played more of
it.

> 4. Humans Being

The song flat-out rocks. Er...I gotta admit something:
Cherone sang it better.

> 5. Up For Breakfast (with the 5150 Kramer)

Of all the songs, this is the fucking one that STUCK
IN MY HEAD. Good Lord. "Butter on my Biscuit"? I
suppose it's some sort of low-brow rock fan thing I
have. I'm still singing this goddamned song. <shaking
head> I gotta get this thing out of my brain. He
played the Kramer. I wish I wouldn't have know about
it beforehand, it would have been cooler.

> 6. Mikey's Solo (with the JD bass)

Sounded like shit. Thank God it was short and segued
into:

> 7. Somebody Get Me A Doctor (with Mike on lead
> vocals)

Fantastic. They should do more from the Roth catalog
like this.

> 8. Poundcake

Not one of my favorites previously, but the planets
were right last night and this one really rocked. One
of the best songs they did. I like it better now.

> 9. It's About Time

The crowd cooled a little on this one, but I liked it.
It has grown on me.

> 10. Al's Solo

Unbelievably, the highlight of the night to me. Maybe
it was because it sounded so much better than when the
whole band was mixed in. No sequenced Samba shit, no
sequenced shit at all, just a great, powerful
performance. Alex is a great drummer.

> 11. Top Of The World

Big crowd reaction, Eddie played it just a little
differently than usual. Had a cool vibe and the big
ending that I love so much.

> 12. Unchained

It's always great, Sam even sang it well(they did the
condensed version, of course), but the sound was
really bad here. Made a difference. I couldn't even
hear the lead.

> 13. Why Can't This Be Love? (all singing)

I hate the song. Always have. 10,000 other people
there love it. Sam sings, Mike sings Ed sings. BFD.

> 14. Eagles Fly
> 15. Deeper Kind Of Love (I would assume Sam solo)

Crowd killers. Got those out of the way.

> 16. Learning To See

Growing on me.

> 17. Best Of Both Worlds

Blasted. Solid. Al played the hell out of this.
Fantastic.

> 18. Eddie's Solo (no Wolfie)

Kinda short. Did "Little Guitars" intro. Ed looked
very happy at the end and thanked the crowd profusely.
I think he was sincere. It was great to hear him and
see him play again.

> 19. Dreams

They played it the way they always do live. I like it
better that way.

> 20. Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love

The crowd realy got up for this one. They played it
very well. Sam went up to the catwalk to sing it. I
think at one point in the song Starks came by me and
we did a little "WhoooHOOO!!" yell. I was fairly drunk
here, so I'm not too sure it was him.

> 21. Right Now

Excellent. The video and lights were commendable here.
At one point the screen printed out "Right Now, Van
Halen is Kicking Ass in GREENSBORO.", which, of
course, was followed by a huge roar.


> Encore:
> 22. You Really Got Me
> 23. Panama
> 24. When It's Love >>

We made a push towards the front during these tunes
and we got pretty close, I'd say within 15 feet of the
stage. A little bald Moby-looking security guy had me
pegged as a troublemaker and he kept sending me back
while my brother and rest stayed up. I kept sneaking
around him and he kept sending me back until he
finally got tired of it and I settled in about 20 feet
out. The sound was somewhat better here and it felt
like the old "festival seating" days again. The band
really played hard here and the crowd was absolutley
roaring. This was the capping moment. I was finally
getting the pure, good old Van Halen concert feeling.
During one of the bows, someone threw a t-shirt
onstage and Ed actaully got a marker and signed it.
Never saw him do that before. That was really cool. He
said several "thank you"s in his mic around this time
and even said something to the effect of "This is one
of the greatest nights of my life". Sammy basically
talked about how great a night it was and how they
appreciated everyone being patient.

So that's about it. Sammy wasn't nearly as comfortable
onstage as he was when I saw him in August 2002 nor
any other Van Halen show in the past. He didn't seem
to have as much banter with the crowd and didn't do a
lot of talk in between songs. It still worked well.
Regardless of the negatives, I still had a blast. I'd
say that the signifigance of the show itself and the
surrounding anticipation and excitement made up for
the lack of a good overall sound. I hope they have it
worked out for the subsequent shows, because it would
have been a bigger issue with me if it hadn't have
been opening night. Rating it with other VH shows, I'd
put it around 3 or 4 behind the 82 show, the 93 show
and maybe behind the VHIII tour, just because they
played so many old Roth-era tunes then. I saw a bunch
of people with Four-Star passes behind me, so I don't
think I would recommend going that route.

I'll probably remember some other tidbits as I read
other reviews. This is all I got right now. What a
great night. Good to see a few list members. Hope to
see you guys again.

jimmyw

[ron]

First boot of the tour:
http://www.vhboots.com/itsabouttime.html

[spanked55]

Quote: Originally posted by Ron:
First boot of the tour:
http://www.vhboots.com/itsabouttime.html HOLY CRAP! Faster than a ..... I guess we all were craving some new VH boots, huh?!??!

[Vince G.]

Quote: Originally posted by Ron:
First boot of the tour:
http://www.vhboots.com/itsabouttime.html Nice, but I would've gone with 12 tracks on each disc instead.

[VHLIVE]

Here are the details on the

Van Halen.....Greensboro,NC 6/11/04....
Opening Night!!!.....DVD

as said by filmer....
great center shot from lower balcony for 1st 4 songs.....had to move in
middle of 4th song ''Up For Breakfast'' so consequently, I miss the rest
of that song and Mikey's bass solo which comes next...I find a good spot
and get back in at middle of ''Somebody Get Me A Doctor''....knee up and
steady from Eddie's side at the curve, lower balcony rest of the way
out....Eddie gets emotional and almost crys at the end of his solo from
the crowd welcoming him back....he even says, ''You guys are making me
cry''.....some obstructions at last song of the encores during When Its
Love......*Mini DV Master*

*Also included TV ad for the show and local newsclips w/pro live footage
(brief) from1st 2 songs*

total running time: 1hr 56min 1 DVD

[Jason C]

RNRV,

I can help if you want to set up a tree or something.

[VHLIVE]

Quote: Originally posted by Jason C:
RNRV,

I can help if you want to set up a tree or something. Thanks Jason, I think what will happen is some of the shows will be Authored w/menu's. So they may get delayed. I won't set anything up until I have them in hand. Once that happens we can set the Tree up for the shows. I might even do multiple shows at once. Just to save time and shipping costs on everyone.

In the meantime, I noticed that the hershey show completely sold out and none are available, so assuming a bunch of other people bought copies, it might show up on here quicker than I can get it.

We shall see, just as long as everyone gets a copy.

Tons of shows for all....lol

[Jason C]

Sounds good to me, I'd rather wait and get nice pc authored versions with all the bells and whistles.

Just drop me an email when you want to set things up and i'd gladly help.

Quote: Originally posted by RocknRollVideo:
Quote: Originally posted by Jason C:
[b]RNRV,

I can help if you want to set up a tree or something. Thanks Jason, I think what will happen is some of the shows will be Authored w/menu's. So they may get delayed. I won't set anything up until I have them in hand. Once that happens we can set the Tree up for the shows. I might even do multiple shows at once. Just to save time and shipping costs on everyone.

In the meantime, I noticed that the hershey show completely sold out and none are available, so assuming a bunch of other people bought copies, it might show up on here quicker than I can get it.

We shall see, just as long as everyone gets a copy.

Tons of shows for all....lol[/b] S